Q & A: Living Colour frontman to perform in Beverly

Monday

Jul 31, 2017 at 2:34 PMJul 31, 2017 at 8:10 PM

By Blake Maddux / Correspondent

Led by Corey Glover’s assertive vocals and Vernon Reid’s feral but tasteful guitar, the New York City quartet Living Colour made its arrival unignorably known with its 1988 single “Cult of Personality” and debut album Vivid.

“Cult of Personality,” which included excerpts from speeches by Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, addressed the ease with which people felt prey to the charm of politicians. Other songs from Vivid dealt with inner-city poverty (“Open Letter (To a Landlord)”) and racism (“Funny Vibe”).

Living Colour won two consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Hard Rock Performance (one for “Cult” and the other for the 1990 album Time’s Up) and was named Best New Artist at the 1989 MTV Music Video Awards.

In 1992, Doug Wimbish replaced original bassist Muzz Skillings. This year, the line-up of Glover, Reid, Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun (an original and lifelong member) will release its first new album in eight years. In the meantime, Glover will be singing with a group of veteran musicians in a show called Rock and a Hard Place.

One of the group’s two Massachusetts appearances will be at 9 Wallis in Beverly on Sunday, Aug. 6.

As for what the audience can expect, bassist David C. Gross says, “I guarantee they’ll be some Hendrix. No polka, though.”

Glover, along with Gross, recently spoke to Wicked Local about the upcoming event.

Wicked Local: What was your status as an actor when you auditioned for the 1986 movie “Platoon”?

Corey Glover: At that point in time, I was a working actor. I was doing a lot of commercial work, doing a lot of voice-over work. I’d been a working actor for about five or six years at that point. I was running around and auditioning for things constantly, and I happened to audition for “Platoon.” The interesting thing about it was I didn’t get the role originally. Somebody else got the role. But they called me at the very last minute and said, “Would you be willing to do it?” And the next thing I knew I was on a plane on my way to the Philippines.

WL: Is it true that Vernon Reid invited you to audition for Living Colour after hearing you sing "Happy Birthday" at a party?

CG: Yes. That is a true story. I was at a friend’s birthday party and Vernon was dragged there by his sister. … So I sang “Happy Birthday,” and Vernon and I struck up a conversation at that point. We exchanged numbers, and about three or four month later he called me and said that he was looking for a singer in his band. Now, I want to see if you can get a pattern going on. So I auditioned for this band, and he said “It’s between you and this other guy, but I’ll call you in a couple of weeks.” Weeks turned into months, I get a phone call from Vernon saying, “Our singer can’t do the gig. Can you do it?” So I said, “Yeah,” and I’ve been in the band ever since.

WL: So you got the “Platoon” and Living Colour jobs because the other guy bailed?

CG: Yeah. I’m the best replacement you could ever have!

WL: Mick Jagger was one of Living Colour’s early supporters. Were you aware that he was at CBGB when Living Colour performed there in 1987?

CG: Actually, I was. Jagger was recording and rehearsing his band for the Primitive Cool album, and one of the players in his band was Doug Wimbish. And Doug suggested, “Why don’t you ask Vernon to come down to audition?” And he said, “OK, I will.” So Vernon and I both went to this audition. I don’t know why he dragged me along. Jagger came out and said, “Oh, it’s you guys. How ya doin’? I’m hearing so much about you guys.” And I said, “We hear a lot about you!” So he’s like, “I hear you guys are playing soon. Is that right?” It’s like, “Yeah, we’re playing at CBGB’s next week. Do you want to come?” So he said, “I will.”

WL: Are Living Colour songs like “Cult of Personality,” “Open Letter (To a Landlord),” and “Funny Vibe” more relevant than ever in the age of Trump?

CG: It’s weird that these songs have stood the test of time. We got the same question when it was Barack Obama. We got the same question when it was Bill Clinton. Hell, we got the same question when it was George Bush!

WL: Its release was delayed for several years, but did Shade finally end up sounding how the band wanted it to?

CG: Yes, as a matter of fact. I am very pleased with what it sounds like right now. It’s coming out September 8, which we’re very, very happy about. We put out an EP earlier, basically November of last year, the “Who Shot Ya?” thing with a video. That was a precursor to the album that’s coming out. We’re putting out another single, “Come On,” and so, we’re very, very happy. We’re very pleased. … It did take a while, but you know, I think it was worth the wait.

WL: What inspired the cover of Robert Johnson’s “Preachin’ Blues”?

CG: The Robert Johnson song was actually the impetus for us to start really recording. We did a show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, it was the 100th anniversary of Robert Johnson[’s birth]. And we had done “Preachin’ Blues” and a few other songs — “Hellhound on My Trail,” that kind of stuff. We did a bunch of songs from the Robert Johnson catalog. And “Preachin’ Blues” came out so well live, we’re like, why don’t we talk about the blues? We allude to the blues, as a part of the mix that makes what Living Colour does, but we never really sort of focused our eye on it, and gave our particular view of what the blues was.

WL: Does it feel good to have the Glover, Reid, Wimbish, Calhoun line-up back together?

CG: Yeah, we can’t get rid of each other. That’s part of the problem. As much as we try, we can’t stop. There’s nothing like what we do. I’ve never heard anything, anything else that I’ve done is quite like the experience of Living Colour. And with that, we don’t let it go. We can’t let it go.